posted August 04, 2006 06:54 PM              

BY JORDAN LITE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Karnit Goldwasser wore a gold lion pendant yesterday, a symbol of the strength she sorely needed as she came to New York to plead for her husband's release from the clutches of Hezbollah guerrillas.

"His first love was me, and second was New York," Goldwasser said.

She was in Manhattan on a worldwide media blitz to pressure Hezbollah to release her husband, Udi, who was snatched three weeks ago while patrolling the Israel-Lebanon border with another Israeli reservist, Eldad Regev.

Speaking calmly and eloquently, she appealed to the wives of his captors. "I'm asking, as a wife to a Hezbollah wife, if she can help me," Goldwasser, 30, said.

Israeli officials say they believe Goldwasser, Regev and Gilad Schalit, who was kidnapped by Palestinian militants in June, are still alive, but refuse to consider a prisoner swap.

Karnit Goldwasser, who has been married for only 10 months, teared up as she told of the "big talks" she's had with her husband every night since his kidnapping, and of her resolve to travel anywhere in the world to bring him home.

She tried sending a letter and a Bible to her husband through the Red Cross, but Hezbollah refused to meet with the humanitarian organization, Goldwasser said.

"He is the love of my life," she said. "I once told him that I would bring the moon for him and this is what I am going to do."

She refuses to give up hope.

"I am fully confident - 99% - that he is alive because I can feel it in my heart. But the 1% that is missing is the message I intend to get from Hezbollah that he is alive," she said.

The soldier's father, Shlomo Goldwasser, is less certain of his son's well-being. "I hope he is alive. If he is alive, I'm sure that he will cope with it because he's a strong person mentally," he said.